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<h1><a name="SECTION00211000000000000000000">
19.10 <tt class="module">sndhdr</tt> --
         Determine type of sound file</a>
</h1>

<p>
<a name="module-sndhdr"></a>

<p>
The <tt class="module">sndhdr</tt> provides utility functions which attempt to
determine the type of sound data which is in a file.  When these
functions are able to determine what type of sound data is stored in a
file, they return a tuple <code>(<var>type</var>, <var>sampling_rate</var>,
<var>channels</var>, <var>frames</var>, <var>bits_per_sample</var>)</code>.  The value for
<var>type</var> indicates the data type and will be one of the strings
<code>'aifc'</code>, <code>'aiff'</code>, <code>'au'</code>, <code>'hcom'</code>,
<code>'sndr'</code>, <code>'sndt'</code>, <code>'voc'</code>, <code>'wav'</code>,
<code>'8svx'</code>, <code>'sb'</code>, <code>'ub'</code>, or <code>'ul'</code>.  The
<var>sampling_rate</var> will be either the actual value or <code>0</code> if
unknown or difficult to decode.  Similarly, <var>channels</var> will be
either the number of channels or <code>0</code> if it cannot be determined
or if the value is difficult to decode.  The value for <var>frames</var>
will be either the number of frames or <code>-1</code>.  The last item in
the tuple, <var>bits_per_sample</var>, will either be the sample size in
bits or <code>'A'</code> for A-LAW<a id='l2h-4662' xml:id='l2h-4662'></a> or <code>'U'</code> for
u-LAW<a id='l2h-4663' xml:id='l2h-4663'></a>.

<p>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-4660' xml:id='l2h-4660' class="function">what</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>filename</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
  Determines the type of sound data stored in the file <var>filename</var>
  using <tt class="function">whathdr()</tt>.  If it succeeds, returns a tuple as
  described above, otherwise <code>None</code> is returned.
</dl>

<p>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-4661' xml:id='l2h-4661' class="function">whathdr</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>filename</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
  Determines the type of sound data stored in a file based on the file 
  header.  The name of the file is given by <var>filename</var>.  This
  function returns a tuple as described above on success, or
  <code>None</code>.
</dl>

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